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Old 01-26-2022, 01:25 AM
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Nate the Great Nate the Great is offline
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I'm a little early on this one, but I don't care...

January 27th, 1992, "Hero Worship"

No fiver

The Episode

Captain's log, stardate 45397.3. Two days ago, Starbase five one four lost contact with the research vessel Vico, which was sent to explore the interior of a Black Cluster. We are en route to investigate.

Only mention of black clusters in canon. The expanded universe says that a black cluster is the result of multiple protostars collapsing in proximity to each other.

RIKER: What a sight.
PICARD: One of the most ancient formations in the galaxy.

I don't like it when Trek declares that a stellar phenomenon has to be really old to be impressive.

DATA: Outer and inner hulls have been breached.

I have to wonder what the purpose of separate outer and inner hulls would be. Any weapon that can penetrate one would penetrate the other as well.

RIKER: Set up a translink to their computer core.

I thought that "translink" would be an outdated computer networking term, but no. In the real world the word describes certain rail lines.

DATA: I cannot, sir. The emergency bulkheads on that deck are in place. Our linkup signal cannot penetrate them.

You'd think there'd be a dedicated external transmitter for translinks, something that can't be blocked by emergency bulkheads.

Captain's log, supplemental. A young boy, shielded from our initial sensor scans, has been discovered pinned beneath a fallen beam.

We'll be told later that "victrium alloy" in the bulkhead is blocking the transporter signal, but I'd think they could design Starfleet ships to be transparent to Starfleet sensors.

HUTCHINSON: The lock is holding. I just can't resolve the matter stream, not with all that victurium alloy in the way.

Resolve the matter stream? The sensors signals are being blocked and scattered, they shouldn't be able to engage the transporter at all!

TIMOTHY: Are you're going to lift that?
DATA: Yes. Then I will take you to the corridor. We will transport back to the Enterprise from there. Do you understand?
TIMOTHY: How come you can pick up something so heavy?
DATA: I am an android. My strength is many times that of a human.

Are they implying that Data is stronger than any humanoid species on record? I find that to be a dubious claim.

TIMOTHY: We were in the Black Cluster. I don't know where they came from. They had a big ship and they kept shooting at us. Then they beamed over. They had purple helmets on and phaser rifles.

Breen helmets are bronze colored. Do Federation children know that?

LAFORGE: This is not good. Whatever hit the Vico must have set up an EM pulse that flashed through their computer banks.
DATA: Nearly eighty three percent of their records have been lost.

We can't make electronics EMP proof in the 24th century?

TEACHER: Dara and her brother found themselves in the land of Tagas where the ruler, Elamos the Magnificent, had proclaimed as law. 'No children will be tolerated within the Great Kingdom'. When Dara saw the proclamation, she just laughed, and said, 'How magnificent a ruler, to be frightened by the likes of us.'

Only mention of any of this. You gotta wonder why they couldn't have used Earth names in this story.

DATA: Fracture points indicate that the energy burst came from a range of less than three thousand metres.
PICARD: But that's a strategy consistent with a cloaked vessel. Romulan. Or Klingon. But we're quite a distance from either of their territories.

I find it odd that no other major power has cloaking devices. The Suliban haven't been invented yet. Something that I find interesting is that we haven't seen Klingon subgroups, ones that would be more aggressive than the others. It would be an interesting plotline to pursue.

LAFORGE: There was absolutely no evidence of anybody coming on board the Vico. We would have found a transporter field trace. Or if somebody had used the entry ports, we would have found an electrostatic differential in the docking latches, and we didn't.

When's the last time an attacking ship physically docked with their victim? I find the idea of an "electrostatic differential" dubious as well, surely by now all docking latches would be grounded to prevent such things.

TROI: If he's lying, I haven't been able to sense it. Perhaps his emotional trauma level is too high.

I don't like this idea. It weakens Troi and only exists to extend the plot to fill an hour.

DATA: Ah. You are attempting to recreate the Dokkaran temple of Kural Hanesh?
TIMOTHY: Isn't it great?!

Only appearance of Dokkarans. One wonders why they didn't use ancient Vulcans or Andorians or whatever.

DATA: The Black Cluster was formed almost nine billion years ago.

The galaxy is almost fourteen billion years old. How can the Black Cluster be one of the most ancient formations then?

TROI: So, what would you like?
TIMOTHY: Androids do not need to eat or drink. (spots a dessert being carried by a waiter) However, sometimes we like to taste things. A Tamarin frost, please.

Cute moment. Only appearance of Tamarin frosts, or Tamarins at all. However, an RPG module has the planet Tamarind. In the real world Tamarins are a classification of small monkey in Latin America. I hope these frost things aren't made out of monkey blood or anything.

PICARD: An android?
TROI: I know it sounds unusual, but it is understandable. Technically, it's called enantiodromia. Conversion into the opposite.

Enantiodromia was formalized by Carl Jung, but its history goes back to Ancient Greece. Taoism has a similar principle. Homeopathy also follows this sort of thinking.

DATA: Timothy, your head movements are counterproductive. Can you be still?
TIMOTHY: But you do it.
DATA: The servo mechanisms in my neck are designed to approximate human movements. I did not realize the effect was so distracting.

Data does tilt his head a bit too much. However, the idea that he doesn't have conscious control of his head to this degree is a little disturbing.

TIMOTHY: I like it. Data, are there any other androids in Starfleet?

Wouldn't Timothy have looked up Data's service record hours ago and know this already? Is Lore's existence classified?

TIMOTHY: How come you're not Captain?
DATA: My service experience does not yet warrant such a position.

Plus he's in Operations, not Command. He doesn't have sufficient command experience.

WORF: We are approaching the perimeter. I'm picking up the gravitational wavefronts.
...
LAFORGE: Adjusting shield frequencies now, Commander. We'll have this smoothed out in just a second.

Are they insinuating that shield emissions can dampen gravitational effects? I doubt that. I would think that this problem isn't a matter of "frequencies", it's a matter of shield shape. They want to cut through the wavefronts, right?

WORF: Captain, gravitational wavefront intensity is increasing steadily. Eleven hundred standard G units and rising.

It's interesting to consider the translation of gravitational attraction to field strength. I could probably create adequate Treknobabble, but it sounds like a rather pointless endeavor.

WORF: The distortion is still in effect.
RIKER: Better jacket the scanning beam.
WORF: The secondary beam is being distorted as well.

Protecting one signal with another, another interesting exercise in Treknobabble that I won't be attempting.

PICARD: Phasers and sensors both useless? Mister Data, this reflection phenomenon, would it have the same effect on a disruptor-style weapon?
DATA: Yes, sir. Disruptors would be ineffectual.
PICARD: And a ship's cloaking field?
DATA: It would be extremely difficult to maintain.

How could a cloak work at all in here? A key principle to the cloak is making what's in front of you look like what's behind you. That can't work in here, the paths of energy wouldn't have predictable paths.

DATA: It is not possible. The onboard control systems for every starship require a user code clearance.

You have to enter a code into every console to operate it? Couldn't you have the console scan the user and check it against a list?

LAFORGE: Captain, I've transferred fusion reactors four through nine into the shield array. That should double the shield strength.

They don't devote all possible power to the shields already? You can double shield strength without the warp engines?

It occurs to me that natural phenomenon wouldn't have frequency spectrums that big, and weapons would be using varying profiles to stop frequency-specific blocking.

LAFORGE: We could run the shield grid directly off the warp drive.

This wasn't being done already? Geordi had to ask permission?

Memory Alpha

* The cast and crew learned of Gene's death during the filming of this episode.
* Second mention of the Breen, the first was in "The Loss".

Nitpicker's Guide

* Why is Timothy left alone in a set of quarters? (I would argue that this is probably standard operating procedure, TNG kids are mature enough to earn independence early. Consider the cast of Jeremy Aster. I'm not sure how much of this is a joke.)
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